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‘The decks are stacked against ordinary fans’ as touts cash in

Official box office agents are passing top tickets to websites that then ramp up prices as fans struggle to get them for face value

Jon Ungoed-Thomas and Lisa Verrico

November 14 2010, 12:01am, The Sunday Times

Some fans could not get tickets to Take That from Ticketmaster and turned to eBay (Yui Mok)

When Debbie Anderton, 46, sat down at her computer screen last month to buy tickets for next year’s Take That reunion tour, she hoped to snap up a couple of seats at one of the Manchester concerts.

She spent days searching websites and vainly trying to enter her details. Eventually, she gave up trying to buy tickets on Ticketmaster, the official online box office, and bought a pair on eBay for £180 — £60 above their face value.

Anderton, from Prestatyn, north Wales, said: “My computer just kept going back to a blank screen or to a dial-up queue. I did go as far as choosing tickets once, but I never got as far as the pay screen.”